Traveling?

 Listened to BBC yesterday about France's pending lock down. (starting today?)

Two days ago I listened to Jeannie Shaheen (NH) debating for that Senate Seat.

What do they have to do with each other?

First a French blogger  I follow is lamenting that her son might not be able to get back over the French boarder in time to file divorce papers. He doesn't really have a residence in France, so she listed her place as the residence. She is hoping he can get to her before the borders are locked down.
Do they actually lock borders? I have no idea. 

And the debate?

Shabeen explained that the largest mistake Trump made was to let the Americans who were overseas (for whatever reason) back into the country in March.  Her largest objection was permitting European people in, since the East Coast version of the virus seemed to come back with people in Europe. The West coast had infection from Asia. The entire 60,000 should have been kept out. Period.

In the past I have traveled a lot. Often. Many places. The constant that I felt was if there was an overseas emergency, I could head for the embassy and beg. Will that be true in the future?

Gave me pause. 

France's rule? If you are not an essential worker or school child you are allowed out of your house for one hour and are not allowed to travel more then 1 km in that hour- daily- for the next three weeks. 

FYI- France is 249k mi sq /60 million people. The lower 48 US is 3,120K mi sq and between 307 and 320 mil people. 

I am not for or against, just observing. We continue to be very good at masks and distance at my house :)
Life continues to be interesting. 

Building a house Part 1

 
We decided last year to build a house for our older years in Idaho. My husband grew up in Idaho Falls, and he is ready to "go home". 

The thought was a four year window. Get the grands all in school and then move when they are not looking. 

The pandemic lock down has changed all that. No need to stay in the East when we could not see our grandchildren on a regular basis. There are fines for going over bridges and we were told to stay inside. We could not attend Church, concerts, parades. Way to much control over our lives. We can do just as much with grands on Facetime while fishing on the Snake River. 

Of course, we could fish/crab the Delaware Bay or Jonas River, but the warnings to only eat one product from these places a year because of the heavy metals in the water....no thank you. Once the federal clean waters act was lifted in this area the states paid no attention and the fertilizer and metals began dumping again. @@ the mid Atlantic states are a mess! Western waters tend to be state controlled and clean. Don't let a cattle rancher catch you messing with the water!!! 

That is another topic for another day.

One of the challenges of building right now is that we are building with US products. The administration has high tariffs on wood from Canada and China. Both have been clear cutting and shipping at a loss to undercut the US market. We get it. So, we are backing US jobs and paying a higher price.

What does that mean to us? Currently our pice for framing materials is up 30%. Our costs for OSB board is up 50%. That also means that these products are fairly cut, harvested, and paid for. They do not include a bunch of formaldehyde or other chemicals used in China - not acceptable to us. 

We are buying our cupboards from a local craftsman. Most had stopped building because they were undercut by big box. With the tariffs, they are on par.  We are using local crews- who are legal and settled in the area. They are bussssyyyy, but will step in for a self build neighbor. We are using small businesspeople for our flooring products- also US made. Appliances are a challenge, but we are getting there. European or US made as long as they are fair wage items. 

We are putting our money where our mouths are. 
Fair wage, good products, growing economy. 
To us you cannot say, "I want the US to be a good place for the next generation" and then buy market flooded stuff from a different place. That is how we have always been. Buy local. 

So, on we go. No matter who is President- we want to be in the West. 

The building continues! 
 Hold on---it is going to be a ride for sure!

Saudi Arabia Revisited

 After writing about my encounter with the Holy Men, I was reminded of another story.

My husband's building was blown up during our time in Saudi. We lived on the compound (about 50 houses behind a 10 foot wall with a rec center and offices) directly behind the office building. BUT, we had just moved from a compound across town (much more in the desert). 

After the bombing, the compounds pretty much shut down. We were barricaded in and protected by Marines brought on shore for car search duty. Our children did not go to school.

 There was SO much gossip. "It had happened because the Christians gathered." "Another wave is going to hit." "No one understands how under threat we are." "Our children are safer in our houses then in the pods set up for school." "The other compound has abandoned us." "Our cars are targeted, they must be protected, don't go out without a full abaya or a full AK (we actually were not allowed guns at all)". 
There were SO many experts starting their idea of what was and was not safe. Water, food, play time, church, the list was endless. So were the rules. 

About two months into the mess we sprung free and went into the desert. With friends we camped, sang, hiked, played, drank...it was amazing. No one got hurt, or shot at, or killed (well, we did get stuck in a sand dune---but that was a challenge). 

We returned to the compound. We had changed but the anti "those who did not believe are evil" became even worse. We were shunned- especially by those who lived in our old compound. 
In Saudi you are not "allowed to leave the country" without permission of our government and theirs. No one had that permission.  So we returned to live the bunker mentality.

My husband's early retirement time came up. We had, fully, intended, to "stay in" for a few more years. Retire kindly. Move to our house and just love it. Instead I pushed. He put in the papers.
We left Saudi, much to many nashing teeth. We abandoned our dear friends who were not in the "permission window" to leave. They were there four more months and did some pretty harsh moves when the time came. I was never forgiven....

Go to today. We have lived the hard and harsh lock down. We went to Idaho. The air is clean- we laughed, we played, we hiked, we watched children go to school and others play soccer, we got up in the morning and ate breakfast- served by an overworked waitress because everyone else had gone back to work at higher paying jobs. 

We returned to reality that we were going back to lock down hell by boarding a plane- that was delayed for an hour so another plane could be returned because a screaming two year old refused to put on a mask. My husband's mask slipped below his nose when he nodded to sleep. The flight attendant woke him to harshly tell him to put his mask over his "NOSE and MOUTH!"
 One set of my grandchildren go to virtual school and then play for hours outside with neighborhood kids. The other set go virtual and then sit inside playing video games- no place to go or anything to do.
I got growled after entering the market with my mask in hand- the rain was so thick I could hardly see the building. My mask was SOAKED, but, like my veil, I put it on. 

The hospitalization of people is tiny. People socially distanced in Idaho, but did not get overly worried. There were many smiles (which we could see) everywhere.  There were 100 people in all of Idaho in the hospital for COVID related things while we were there. Currently there are 79 people in Delaware in the hospital with COVID related issues. 17 are critical. Less then 100 hospitalized  every day in September. Still- don't try to go the the shore without that mask on or someone WILL yell at you. 

It all moves my plans to move West closer and closer to NOW! I want those retirement papers in. I want out of here. Denying me the chance to do the only thing I moved here for- seeing my grandchildren makes me know that it is time to GO!  I live in the United States. I need to be able to move freely. Let the arrows begin. 

Really, I think all of the mask police need to move to one place- but who would be their servants???? Don't forget, to truly be a member of the mask police you cannot have any association with people who work outside of the house. You are exposed every single day. Or maybe that is another "do as I say , not as I do" occasion- like sending your kid to private school--or any school.

Building a house

 There are a thousand choices with a house. 

Should the corners be rounded? The doors be squared? Plugs be USB enhanced?

What color for the granite? One sheet or two?

Triple pane windows? white casing or black? screened in porch or open?

Just happy to be moving and get away from the despair that surrounds me here.